The area drained by Ball Creek is primarily underlain by units of Upper Triassic volcanics and/or sediments as well as Lower Jurassic conglomerate. These are intruded locally by bodies of Juro- Cretaceous hornblende diorite and Tertiary-Cretaceous felsite. They are overlain in the northern parts of the drainage area by Cenozoic, Spectrum Range basalts.

Between 1936 and 1940 placer operations recovered 93.3 grams of gold from Ball Creek. The source of the placer gold may be Upper Triassic volcanics which are known to host gold in significant amounts.